In 1856 the above mentioned Mr. Gootman, who had remained in Neufchatel by special permission, again requested, through the American minister to Switzerland, Mr. Theo. S. Fay, the intervention of the United States Government against his expulsion. In his letter to the State Department Mr. Fay states it as a matter of fact that the treaty between the two republics “does not grant to Israelites the right of domicile in Switzerland,” and in a second letter he says “that it may be superfluous to repeat that the obnoxious clause in the treaty was unavoidable without a revision of the federal constitution of Switzerland.” He also repeats “that the admission of American Jews would necessitate that of Jews of other nations, and particular inconvenience is apprehended from the usurious Israelitish population of the French province of Alsace.” This second Gootman case became generally known, and public sentiment was aroused against the treaty. The result of the agitation was apparent even in the general press of the country, and many protest meetings were held, memorials drawn and forwarded to Washington and committees appointed to consider the matter. A delegation of prominent Jews went to the Capital in October, 1857, and presented a memorial to President James Buchanan (1791–1868), who gave an explicit promise to remedy the wrong of which the Jews complained.
The declaration of the President on the subject was so emphatic that most of the leaders and promoters of the agitation were completely satisfied that the question was already settled in their favor. Dr. Einhorn wrote in his “Sinai”: “We feel satisfied that the Israelites of the United States may feel implicit confidence in the Executive, and that their rights as citizens of the United States will be zealously maintained.” Dr. Wise, in the “Israelite,” wrote: “No doubt was left in the minds of the delegates, but that this matter is settled as far as we are concerned.” Rabbi Leeser, however, was not so well satisfied, and he did not agree that all agitation ought now to cease, but thought it “advisable for all the congregations that have not yet acted to draw up memorials and send them to the President, to show at least that the interest in the question was not confined to the four States represented at Washington on the 31st of October.”
Another long diplomatic correspondence followed, with reciprocal requests for information about the condition of the Jews in both countries, with urgent requests from Washington that something be done, and with explanations from Mr. Fay that the Cantonal laws or constitutions would have to be changed before favorable action could be expected. In November of the same year Mr. Fay wrote: “I would wish carefully to avoid offering encouragement to the Hebrews.” But he was now working diligently to carry out the desire of the President, and was even collecting material to disprove the charges made by the Swiss against the Alsatian Jews. In November, 1858, he wrote to Secretary of State Lewis Cass (1782–1866): “That the mouths of all foreign governments and preceding treaty makers have been until now closed by a plea about the Alsatian Jews. I think that after the renseignements which I am now collecting no Swiss authority will ever dare to advance that objection against us as an argument, and I am more and more of the opinion that it may become expedient to denounce our treaty until the expunction of the offensive clause.” The results of Mr. Fay’s investigations were incorporated in his “Israelite Note,” which was transmitted to the Secretary of State on June 3, 1859, and to the Federal Council of Switzerland on the same day. It had a salutary effect on Switzerland, where the Federal Council assisted in its circulation. A German edition of it was printed in St. Gall in 1860. The cause of the Jews in Switzerland gained much from this intervention of the representative of a foreign government in their behalf; and the consequences were felt in other countries where the struggle for Jewish emancipation was then going on. According to a letter written by Mr. Fay in October, 1859, the Bavarian Minister told him that should he succeed in Switzerland, the Israelites of Bavaria would also be emancipated.
The case of the Jews was making considerable progress, and other enlightened governments also made representations to Switzerland in favor of the Jews; still nothing definite was accomplished under Buchanan’s administration, either. In March, 1861, Rabbi Leeser expressed, in the “Occident,” his regret, that nothing was done, and wrote that he expected that nothing would be done until “Switzerland herself will render the laws harmless by repealing through her Cantonal Councils all inequality laws existing against us.” This prediction proved correct; for while the succeeding Secretary of State, William H. Seward (1801–72) took up the matter with Mr. George G. Fogg, who was then minister to Switzerland, several years passed before another favorable report reached the State Department on the subject. The appointment by the Government of the United States of a Jewish citizen, Mr. Bernays, as its Consul to Zürich created a stir in both countries, and clearly indicated the favorable disposition of the administration of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) towards the Jews.
In 1864 Mr. Fogg wrote to Mr. Seward that the President of the Confederation, Mr. Dubs, had informed him that the Federal Council were then disposed to so amend the treaty that no discrimination founded on religious belief should thereafter be made or endured by citizens of the United States within the limits of the Swiss Confederation. The remaining Cantons were removing the Jewish disabilities one after another; but in some of them, as in Basle, the hotbed of opposition and prejudice against the Jews, full civil rights were not granted until 1872, although the right of residence was freely accorded ten years earlier. The new Swiss Constitution, which was adopted in 1874, at last established full religious liberty, and also made the question of treatments of aliens a Federal, as distinguished from a Cantonal, matter. It was not until then that the question was solved, so to speak, automatically; but it is conceded that the efforts of the Government of the United States contributed to the result, although it could not attain its object by direct diplomatic negotiations.
PART V.
THE CIVIL WAR AND THE FORMATIVE PERIOD.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE DISCUSSION ABOUT SLAVERY. LINCOLN AND THE JEWS.
Pro-slavery tendencies of the aristocratic Spaniards and Portuguese—David Yulee (Levy)—Michael Heilprin and his reply to Rabbi Raphall’s Bible View on Slavery—Immigrants of the second period as opponents of slavery—Two Jewish delegates in the Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln, and one member of the Electoral College in 1860—Two other Jews officially participate in Lincoln’s renomination and re-election in 1864—Abraham Jonas—Encouragement from the Scripture in original Hebrew.